Indigenous Engagement Blog

Congratulations Champions

To all our participants, firstly we would like to send you a big thank you for your support and taking part in the Indigenous Engagement Project Champions’ Workshop for 2007.

The Indigenous Engagement Project is part of the national training system’s e-learning strategy, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework).

On 18 June, the Indigenous Engagement Project held the Project Champions’ Workshop in Darwin over three consecutive days supported by team members, guest speakers, Framework participants and project team supporters.

Through building partnerships with registered training organisations (RTOs), small businesses and Project Champions we have worked collaboratively to create better employment outcomes and sustainable futures for Indigenous people through e-learning.

The Project Champions are attached to six pilot projects which are being funded and supported by the Indigenous Engagement Project this year.

Without our Champions, project managers, trainers and supporters these visions would not be possible.


A re-cap on our time in Darwin…

Day 1
Our first day started off at a searing 33 degrees. Participants arrived from various locations around Australia to the Darwin Airport Resort, where we made our way out to the Charles Darwin University, Palmerston Campus. After introductions were made we were soon into our first day of the workshop. Champions and guest speakers spoke of their project objectives and outcomes followed by an overview from the Indigenous Engagement Project Manager Rhonda Appo.

Once acquainted our guest speaker, Colin Saltmere took the floor and bought inspiration to his eager listeners. Colin, a participant in last year’s Indigenous Engagement Project told his story of the hard work and dedication to Myuma, an Aboriginal owned and operated earth moving business. Myuma, based at Mount Isa, has a ever expanding construction camp in Camooweal.

Colin, a humble achiever, seeks no praises for the great work he and his team continue to achieve.It is fair to say that the audience was moved and motivated by his achievements and what he has done towards Indigenous people and we congratulate him for that.

Our Training and Assessment (TAA) trainers from Wide Bay TAFE in Queensland, Phil Wheeler and Michelle Robinson, gave an overview of the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and ways in which to gather evidence. Phil and Michelle will be working with our Project Champions over the next few months to support them in completing their training.

At the end of our first day, and no time to relax, we returned to the formal lauch of the 2007 workshop with invited guests to welcome our Project Champions for 2007.

Attendees at the launch were: Cathy Curry and Marcia Kelly, from CHARTTES in the Northern Territory (NT), who continuously supported us in organising the event; Melanie Brenton, NT Framework Coordinator, who very kindly donated Framework communication tools to be distributed; Ross Lindsay, NT Flexible Learning Advisory Group member; Alison Anderson, Member for Macdonnell; John Hassed, Deputy Chief Executive of the NT Department of Employment, Education and Training; and NT Australian Council for Private Education and Training (ACPET) Board Director Sean Mahoney.

Day 2
On day two, we resumed with presentations from each project team, giving a brief overview of their project objectives and what their roles will be in the project.

Sharon McDonald represented JobTrain WA for the Indigenous ICT: I Can Too! project. Sharon presented a very visual direction of where JobTrain WA is heading with linkages to Community Development Employment Project (CDEP) offices and Telecentres to link in with Indigenous communities in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia.

Fred Binge represented Queensland’s Sunshine Coast TAFE One Mob Together project. Fred discussed the development of a pilot e-tool for recognised prior learning (RPL) for Indigenous community organisation members wanting to acquire their Certificate IV in Business (Governance).

Kimberley TAFE, in Western Australia which is leading the Working From Our Strengths project, was represented by Carla Davies, who discussed how they will build on the work of Indigenous enterprise operators across the top end of Australia to develop effective strategies to ensure relevant quality training and qualifications are implemented.

In 2006, the Certificate IV in Business (Governance) was delivered by TAFE NSW Western Institute into very remote communities using a combination of satellite, video conference and online technologies. Lou Townsend and Ross Sullivan presented the objective of the project for 2007 Improving Indigenous E-governance project.

Also attending from country NSW was Alister Ferguson, Chairperson of Bourke Aboriginal Community Working Party in NSW. Alister has strong linkages with community and was one of the first students to complete the Certificate IV in Business (Governance) course through the inaugural E-governance in Indigenous communities program.

Before lunch we listened to a very inspring story by Meredith GurrangGurrang.

Meredith comes from Gawa, a small Indigenous community approximately 50 kms north east of Galiwinku, located on the north eastern end of Elcho Island in the Northern Territory.

We were honoured to be shown a story by Meredith through digital storytelling with visual drawings from a local artist and voice recordings to interpretate the language. Meredith’s grandmother is keen to develop the 'e- Books' so the younger generation can learn their traditional language for years to come.

The afternoon ended with some group activities taken by Marcia Kelly who demonstrated how to create a digital story, Ruth Wallace took her group through the online survey creator SurveyMonkey. Phil Wheeler and Michelle Robinson both took groups through TAA and face-to-face evidence gathering.

The end of our second day finished by networking with each other and gathering information on what we had learnt before heading off for dinner in Darwin.

Day 3
A little weary but ready to complete our final day we set ourselves up for an information technology extravaganza from Phil who took us through a number of free e-learning tools available online. Cala Davies also gave a polished presentation representing her Institute using the video conferencing softeware Elluminate.

The week was nearing an end and participants were soon on their way home after a successful, exciting and interactive workshop. It was a great opportunity for us to all meet and see where our ambitions lie within the project and what the future may hold with e-learning in Indigenous communities.

The Indigenous Engagement Project team, Brisbane